Skeeve

Short frame bikes ['99-'01] had the padded top & external fuel pump. Long frame bikes ['02+] had the smooth top & internal fuel pump. AFAIK, the tanks are all same length/fitment, just the frame in front of the tank mount was extended slightly [approx. 1"?], but you might want to consult a copy of Guzziology or contact MI for confirmation. If you've already got an external pump tank, it would be a minor chore to convert to the internal pump, but it eliminates the hot-start vapor lock problem. If you already have an internal pump tank, you won't want to convert to an external fuel pump, because you'll be creating problems for yourself.

While I had the giveaway K&N in hand, I stopped by the local Pep Boys [to spend my $10 birthday bonus] and tried to see if there were any automotive air filters that would be a likely match. The Purolator A15669 ["A" is for Air filter, as opposed to "C" for cabin (a/c) filtering, F for fuel, etc.] seems very close. I'll double check it this weekend when I have a chance, but at most it will require a slight shave w/ an X-acto knife to fit the filter cover. I know that it has been said that a filter for some mid-80s FIAT model was supposed to fit the V11 airbox, but that car isn't listed in any of the modern electronic parts finders or the old xref books chained to the wall [probably because it was never imported Stateside. Us 'murricans can be sooo provincial! ] Anyway, just thought I'd pass this along before I screwed up & managed the throw away the box w/ the product code or something! One of the nice things about this particular filter is that it was only about $7 or $8 list, and with the regular Purolator rebate offers it basically comes to less than $5/ea. I'll confirm the fit this w/e, right now I'm running l8 for work...

Modern Harleys are belt drive, so that would be "We sell 1910 tech w/ 2010 prices..." ;D Before my maternal grandpa passed away in '86, we'd had a talk about motorcycles. He revealed that he'd had a Harley as a young man: it had a single cylinder & belt drive. I thought his meds were getting to him... then I did some reading, & found out it was all true. A couple years later when I found out that H-D was making belt-driven motorcycles, I thought "wow, everything has come full circle." Maybe it is time for Guzzi to make a supercharged transverse triple again w/ enclosed chain drive? W/ modern materials, it would require even less maintenance than the shaft drive, be lighter and have less unsprung wt., and the engine would be more powerful, compact & smoother than anything the competition is offering. What does Guzzi care if forced-induction isn't allowed in GP racing anymore, it's not like they've been involved in that for the past 50+ years! Let's not poke fun @ Harley for doing what Guzzi has been doing too...

What rims are those? They look... somewhat lighter than stock?

Seems like you'd need the WM15r? ecu off a late model small block or the CalVin in order to get the oxygen sensor input necessary for this thing to really do much: otherwise, it amounts to nothing more than the potentiometer mounted on the air sensor circuit that HeWhoMustNotBeNamed [RatchetHack! There, I said it! ] proposed and for which was so reviled in one of the interminably long threads kept alive by those same sort of individuals who ignore the "Do Not Feed The Bears" signs @ Yellowstone Nat'l. Park... and who then blamed Ratch for being so sorely tempted! Don't see where this is as half as useful as the PCIIIusb, and you can find a used one of those off eBay for about the same $$. But that's just my take on it, as someone who has a non-O2 sensor model of the WM15 on his V11... Nice to see someone doing anything for our old V11s tho'!

Nonsense: that's what clearcoat is for...

Better looking than a straight up XR1200. I love the psychokinetic final drive btw the back of the Sposta* cases and the rear hub... * - 'Cause it's Sposta be a motorcycle!

No doubt, but that requires a shop-stand. Someone on a long tour might find the need to do a valve adjustment w/ the bike on the side-stand? Who knows what they were thinking @ Mandello when they came up with this...

Excellent! I remember reading somewhere that it would be a good idea to ventilate the cam belt covers [maybe with some fine screen covering the holes?] on the old 4v, as the engine heat otherwise trapped in them tends to bake the cam belts, and the extra airflow thru the belt housing helps keep these very hot-running heads that little bit cooler. Best of luck!

Alloy is nice, but I wish someone did a knockoff of the Guzzi roto-molded tank in steel: there's just not that much weight to be saved in a gas tank [since steel will hold its shape in thinner sheet than will aluminum], and the advantages of magnetic tank bags aren't lost on me...

CVT adapted from some small urban car? Don't forget, the Guzzi v-twin started life as a power-up test mule in the original FIAT 500... Electric-, air- or vacuum-shifter adapted from the drag racing set? Google "handicapped motorcycles" & see what comes up: I know there are several folks out there doing mods for disabled riders; someone *must* have gone down this path before... Then there's always the uber-scooter option of the SuziQ 650 Burgman...

As stated earlier, not having to remove the entire exhaust system to access the alternator was the likely cause behind a non-welded front x-over...

Are you talking about one of the new "8 valve" engines? I presume you are because you're using Piaggio's daft terminology instead of something that doesn't require the listener to divide by the # of cylinders, & know that Guzzi's are usually twins... "QV" for "Quattrovalvole" is good for the new ones w/ chain driven cams, & 4v for the old ones w/ belt-driven cams works well, since that's what they had emblazoned on their square valve covers... I hope you got one of the 4v motors, because the new QV won't fit in the single spine frame of a V11 Sport: you'll note that all the QV motors are in the double-spine frame derived from Dr. John's Quota 1100. Good luck w/ your special: it's something I've dreamed of doing for my '03 Lemon!

Not really a classified, & I think the whole "can't reply to classified threads" to be a HUGE PITA, so I'm posting here: I have a used K&N V11 air filter that came with an airbox lid I ordered off of eBay some time back. Since I'm into owning my Guzzi for the long haul, I have no interest in the K&N. Anyone who wants it can have it for the cost of shipping. NB: it was pretty filthy when I rec'd. it, and sat in that condition on the shelf for the last couple years. K&N wants you to buy their fancy-schmancy filter cleaner spray, but I tried some orange cleaner 1st [loosened quite a bit of the grime, but nowhere near clean enough], and then got smart & used what I think is probably the cheapest solution for anyone who's going to be using one of these on an ongoing basis: Spray&Wash laundry stain pre-treatment! Lay the filter dirty side up in the kitchen sink, spray it down heavily w/ the Spray&Wash, flip it over, spray it again on the clean side w/ the Sp&W, let it sit for awhile [overnight? I just gave it 15 minutes or so while I adjourned to the throne room], & then rinse it down w/ hot water from the tap, & man: look at the gunge wash down the drain! Since Spray&Wash is designed for removing heavy grease & protein stains from fabric, I figured it would be pretty ideal for this task [removal of oil & proteinaceous bug effluvium from loosely woven burlap], & it seems I was pretty much on the mark! Anyhow, if you want the dang thing, reply to this thread so any latecomers will know they missed out w/o my having to post an update. We'll sort out the shipping & payment privately once I see a response to the thread. Ciao!

Well, Guzzi may have been doing a styling exercise, trying to better tie in the new LeMans w/ the original, which had a hard-welded front x-over [that was a source of complaint due to the tedium of removing the one-piece header system]? I postulated on Guzzitech once that the front x-over would have had some f/x on the 4k rpm dip, & Todd's reply was that with a better collector & a PCIII it was unnecessary & more reliable to go w/ no front x-over. Not exactly my point [mine being a path of frugality], but the better solution, no doubt.

Yes, I know. No, it won't: the 6-spd gearbox on a V11 is much different from the 5-spd Centauro gearbox, part of the purpose of the 6-spd box was to move the shaft down & over to make more room for a wider rear tire than the old Sport/Daytona/Centauro spine frames could support. I have a V11 swingarm that I snared off eBay [for too much money] with the idea of designing a jig around it to make aluminum swingarms [because the best mod to any Guzzi is lower unsprung wt off the rear axle.] After receipt I discovered that the reason it had been replaced(?) by the P.O. was because the bearings were toast. Not that that matters for my purposes, but you should know in case you think you'd want it. You can have it for what I have in it + shipping [i've given up on grandiose schemes for utilizing time I don't have... for now. ]

Ah, the joy of realizing you just clicked on a 5 y.o. ebay link! Nothing good can come of this: the deletion of one-half of the insufficient V11 muffler volume bodes ill for the top-end power production, a la' "stick a cork in it..." Yet the short header length before the join points to power production at an rpm beyond V11 redline. I'm guessing the power output is down all over, with the only appeal being wt. savings & looking lopsided...

Give it up, Pete! We all know that you're really only involved in the highly lucrative Guzzi repair business as a mean of bankrolling your money-losing midget porn empire! Your blatant attempts to get the hordes of Guzzi owners possessed of machines with the common-place & infallible single-plate clutch to replace them with the trouble-prone and esoteric twin platers can only be justified by your avarice and expectations of numerous juicy work contracts. Yeah, yeah, that's it!.. BTW, when are you going to take me scuba-diving in the Coral Sea on your yacht w/ naked bimbos? You can leave the midgets behind, I like them long, lean & luscious ladies... [(I said ladies, LADIES d@mmit! Only one "D"! Sheesh!... )

Jaap is right about the new QV motors not fitting in the single-spine frame: they all sport the old style alternator mounted topside in the cylinder V that the original loop frame motors had, instead of the pancake alternator mounted on the front end of the crank as in our V11s.[1] The top-mount alt. interferes w/ the single-spine running down btw the cylinders, hence the use of the dual-spine frame common to all the Quotard[1] CARC bikes... It might be possible to fit a smaller alternator, flipped around to face forward from the "eye" w/o running into interference with the front end, & have clearance to fit the motor in the single-spine V11 frame. I don't know, nor do I have access to a spine frame floating around loose to see if it would mate up with the parts B11 motor I do have access to. I suppose if I was really motivated I could go out w/ tape measure & poke around measuring standoff heights from the LeMans cases vs. the top of the "eye" on the B11 cases, but I frankly can't be bothered right now; that will have to go into the "blue sky projects" file... Ride on! [1] How much sense would it make to fold the alternator/generator/electrical bumpf into the mass of the flywheel/clutch assembly? The flywheel spins constantly, building electromagnets/coils into the cases wouldn't be that hard, and some of the excess mass of alternator would simply "evaporate" from the system, since it would become part of the essential mass of the flywheel necessary to our lumpy big-twin motors... All the benefit of the light alloy flywheel, w/o sacrificing any of the actual structural integrity of the steel one. Win-win! [2] Because they're all derivatives of the dual-spine frame Dr. John developed for the Quota, hence, "Quotard." Kinda like "retards," but different!

Yeah, it's pretty fun. The story rocks along in the books: the tv-movie adaptation was really well done but necessarily had to simplify the plot somewhat to keep it from being impossible to follow & far too long to profitably turn out. Sounds good for the local economy. If all your freelancers have been sucked out from under you, what's the odds of putting your regular biz on the backburner & freelancing for HBO short term yourself? Don't watch much tv at all. Caught part of one episode of SoA and thought it looked pretty good for a nighttime soap-opera, but that's not my viewing taste: real life has enough drama so what's the point of watching them ham up more drama on tv? Never understood the soap-opera mentality...

+1 to the belts. You *don't* want to have one break.. What they said. Engineering-wise, this counts as one of the best reasons to design a free-spin engine w/ supercharging to get the compression ratio you want... Or redesign the engine using cam chains running off the back of the heads (for better cooling) like someone else recently did! Those QV Grisos & Stelvios keep looking better all the time...

Buckminster Fuller had a different point of view. Why do we persist in building housing [a commodity good] in the same fashion as we have for thousands of years, as a one-off luxury item. Virtually every house is built as a custom effort. Wrapping your head around this helps explain why the military loved (loves?) Quonset huts so much for so long, despite all their limitations. As an aside: Everyone has bemoaned Steve Jobs' passing as the "death of a genius." Steve Jobs was smart enough to surround himself w/ genii, and he was able to synthesize their effort into a larger whole [typical entrepreneurial behaviour, btw.] Good on him, and good for all of us non-geeks that he did: if it wasn't for a Mac, I'd still be writing everything long hand & pounding it out on a typewriter 'cause it was more efficient than learning obscure WordPerfect typesetting arcanery... So, Steve wasn't a genius: he was an entrepreneur, an industrialist, a captain of industry, [All good things, AFAIC] but not a genius. Bucky Fuller was a genius, yet his passing barely made a blipvert on the evening news... Back to the topic at hand: I read The Perfect Vehicle, and liked it for the most part. Got a little frustrated by her refusal to learn the 1st thing about maintaining her own ride, but that's a typically female attribute in this society so I came to terms with it. Definitely made me a bigger fan of the small blocks than I was before reading it. I think the new title for Shop Class as Soul Craft will help it be a bigger seller, as it seems to deserve: have heard nothing but good reviews of this book, and look forward to reading it myself one day, as soon as I can clear some space in my reading schedule [too many mags coming in right now, & the next couple titles in the Game of Thrones series since that @!#%% awesome TV show got me hooked... ] Ride on!

Pshaw, nothin' a little JB Weld can't fix... Good luck with it all: it seems you've got your work cut out for you!

Now that's worth a bodge point!

Don't know if it is an optical illusion due to the lighting or what, but it also appears that besides trimming the front fairing to fit upright handlebars[1], whoever owned it also opted for the aftermarket rear body work/seat cowl to eliminate the "hips" that were standard on the original 1100 Sport bodywork. Looks worse, but my understanding is that is more comfortable for a passenger? Seems like the previous owner really wanted a Centauro [upright posture, etc.] & settled for modding the Sport to suit?